Hey! You Can Wash Mushrooms

We once interviewed a mushroom farmer for a magazine article, and she said something we never forgot: "Mushrooms need a shower, not a bath."

And so, while every cook we see on TV tells us to wipe each mushroom with a damp cloth and never, ever rinse for fear those porous mushrooms will just soak up water and turn to mush, we've been happily giving ours a quick run under the faucet. It's far less time-consuming and, frankly, they taste just fine.

Well, we now have Gourmet magazine on our side...

One of the little tips in the front of the July issue mentions that it's a myth that mushrooms can't be washed. In fact, Gourmet performed an experiment, soaking a bunch and testing how much water they absorbed. It was about one sixteenth of a teaspoon per mushroom — only a bit more than is absorbed by an asparagus, they say.